Hub for bicycle-wheels.



PATENTED MAR. l0, 1903.

G. ELLSTROM. HUB FOR BICYCLE WHEELS.

A-PPLIOATION FILED 00T.19, 3.896.

No MQDEL.

UNITED STATES PATENT EEICEe GUSTAF ELLSTROM, OF FITOHBURG, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO MARY ELIZABETH JOHNSON, OF FIT'CHBURG, MASSACHUSETTS.

HUB FOR BICYCLE-WHEELS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 722,402, dated March 10, 1903.

Application tiled October 19,1896. Serial No. 609,344. (No model.)

To all whom, t may concern.-

Be it known that I, GUsTAE ELLsTRoM, a

citizen of the United States, residing at Fitch-` burg, in the county of XVorcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Hubs for .Bicycle-VVheels, of which the following is a specification, accompanied by drawings forming a part of the same.

1o My present invention relates to the wheels of bicycles; and it has for its objects to provide means for protecting the ball-bearings from dust, to provide means for adjusting the ball-bearing cones, and to simplify the construction of those parts contained in the hub of the wheel, and these objects are secured bythe construction and arrangement of parts as hereinafter described, and set forth in the claim.

zo In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents in elevation a hub of a bicyclewheel and the spindle upon which the hub,

rotates. 2 is a sectional View online 2 2, Fig. l; and Fig. 3 is an end View of vone z 5 of the ball-bearing cones.

Similar letters refer to similar parts in the diiferent igures.

Referring to the drawings, A denotes aY spindle upon which the hub rotates and which 3o is held in the slotted ends of a fork, (indicated by the broken lines AC) B denotes the hub, provided with flanges B to receive the spokes of the wheel and having at each end annular ball-cups C, which are crowded tightly into the ends of the hub B, with their edges C' flush with the ends B2 of the hub. The ball-cups O are provided with openings concentric with the spindle A to receive the ends of a thin sheet-metal tube D, which incloses an oil-chamber D, communicating at each end with the chambers inclosed within the ball-cup C and containing the friction-balls E. An oil-tube D2 is held in the hub B and communicates with the oilchamber D and having its outer end closed by the ball D3, which is crowded by the spring D* against the interior fianges D5 of the oiltube D2.

The spindle A is provided at one end with 5o the right-handed screw-thread A2 and at the opposite end with the left-handed screwthread A3, and the ends of the spindle are slotted at A4 to receiveascrew-driver. Screwthreaded ball-cones A5 A5 are held upon the screw-threaded ends of the spindle A. The ball-cones A5 A5 are provided with conical surfaces A6, flanges A7, a cylindrical portion A8, and a hub Af. The hubs A9 of the ballcones are flattened on opposite sides, as at A10, Fig. 3, to receive the slotted ends of the 6o fork A', by which the ball-cones are held from turning. Washers F and nuts F on the ends of the spindle A secure the slotted ends of the fork between the Washers F and the shoulders A11 on the ball-cones. The edges 65 O of the ball-cups are provided 'with internal screw-threads O2 to receive the screw-threaded flanges G of the caps G, which are provided with milled edges G2 and are screwed against the ends B2 of the hub. In this way the ball- 7o cups O O are held from being crowded inwardly by the pressure of the balls thereon. The caps G are provided with a central hole G5, which fit the cylindrical portion A8 of the ball-cones and close the ends of the hub,

thereby protecting the ball-bearings from dust. The nuts F' serve as check-nuts to hold the spindle A from rotating. By loosening the nutsF the spindle A is released and can bereadily rotated from either end by 8o means of a screw-driver. As the ball-cones A5 are held from rotating by means of the fork, the rotation of the spindle A in one direction will cause the ball-cones to approach each other, thereby tightening the ball-bearings, and the rotation of the spindle in the opposite direction will increase the distance between the ball-cones and loosen the bearings.

The caps G are held by the screw-threaded 9o edges of the ball-cups G, so that the mutilation of the screw-thread can be remedied by the substitution of a new ball-cup and cap G withoutthe loss of the entire hub, and as each of the ball-cups is independent of the central tube D it can be readily removed and 'a new one substituted in its place instead of requiring the removal of the central tube, as is the case when the ball-cups are formed integrally with the central tube. Ico

Whats I claim as my invention, and desire and having screw-threaded flanges engaging to secure by Letters Patent, isthe internal screw-threads in said ball-cups, In a bicycle, the combination of a hub, a whereby said ball-cups are held from being screw threaded spindle held coneentrically crowded inwardly by the pressure of the balls I 5 5 in said hub, ball-cups inserted in the ends of thereon, substantially as described.

said hub and removable therefrom and pro- Dated this 15th day of October, 1896. vided with intern al screw-threads, cones held upon said screw-threaded spindle and outside GUSTAF ELLSTROM said ball-cups, a series of friction-balls held Witnesses: o between said cones and said ball-cups aunu- FRED A. YOUNG,

lar caps bearing against the ends of said hubs ALEX. N. SMITH. 

